In my last post I gave an example of a situation where individual investors might want to borrow money for investment purposes. This post will give an overview of the methods that individuals can use to achieve that leverage efficiently. I will also cover tax considerations, some of which may be relevant even to unleveraged positions. Much of what I cover here will be UK specific, particularly when it comes to taxes.

The standard advice for personal investing that I see all around the web is to put your money into one or more low cost equity index tracking funds. Commentators also sometimes recommend an allocation to bonds (e.g. a 60/40 split between stocks and bonds), though the popularity of this advice seems to become less common with every passing month of the bull market.